


What lies below

by Aridette



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Mer!Hanzo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 04:04:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15549201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aridette/pseuds/Aridette
Summary: When McCree agrees to take some time off he is not prepared to discover what he finds. Not in the least.





	What lies below

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sketchdoodle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sketchdoodle/gifts).



> Little fic for Sketchdoodle for the McHanzo Sanctuary Summer Exchange!
> 
> Sadly unbetaed as all my McHanzo works but with lovely input from dear friends! Thank you, everyone. You are champions.

“You’ll love the beach,” Fareeha had said. “The water is so clear, even you desert-dweller will want to go for a swim,” Fareeha had said.

“Guess I’ll give it a try,” McCree had finally agreed.

That had been two months ago when everyone and their mothers—literally—had talked him into his first vacation in years.  
He really doubted their combined judgement in this very moment.

Whatever his friend had seen in the place, it sure as heck hadn’t been the cliffs this close to her face, and god-knows-how-many feet underwater with merely enough time between waves to tell which side was up and which was down.

McCree was trying to hold onto the rocks, to keep them at a safe distance and pull himself up—or where he thought was up anyway—so he could gasp for air and maybe, just maybe hold out until this sudden storm was over without splitting his head open on the unforgiving, black stone.

The salty sea spray had him cough more than breathe. But at least it gave him hope he would make it through. If only he managed to keep holding on.

That was until he noticed the large, dark figure among the waves, heading straight for him. It was hardly more than a solid shadow. But had he been able to feel any more terrified than he already did, McCree might have screamed. He didn’t. Not like anyone would have heard.

Next thing he knew, something grabbed him by the legs and pulled him down. Away from the jagged rocks, away from the surface and the air he so desperately needed.

_‘What a way to go,’_ he thought as the water around him grew ever colder and darker.

* * *

 

McCree couldn’t believe it when he came to in a wet puddle. On land. Or at least on a solid surface. He coughed and sputtered, not caring about anything but the fact that his lungs were burning and his whole body ached. He could still hear the rolling waves crash against solid rock. But the sound seemed farther away than before. Finally, the coughing eased. His breath was still laboured, but calmer now.

He pushed himself up and took a look around in the relative darkness. The task took more out of him than he would have liked to admit. His arms were shaking from the effort and his eyes were straining in the dark.  
A gust of wind hit him from behind. There were only small cracks in the rock above, allowing in some light, but also the rain. That explained the slippery surface then.

He was in a cave. A cave with at least one exit somewhere further inside and an entrance somewhere underwater. There was no other explanation.

“How the…” McCree wondered breathlessly.

The walls appeared to whisper back at him among the gurgle of the ocean. With a soft splash his feet were doused in cold water again. McCree pulled them back towards himself. But with his eyes now trimmed on the offending water, he could have sworn there was something there.  
Something other than water.  
Even in the dim light of the cave he noticed an unnaturally blue spark below the surface. It was beautiful. Mesmerizing.

Fareeha had told him the water around here was clear and very blue. And it was indeed. But this was different. This spark moved and shimmered, almost like sequins. Or scales.  
McCree inched closer to the water to get a better look, leaning on the smooth edge of the rock.   
Was that a fin? No, it was too large.

A splash of water hit him in the face. McCree spat out the water he had inevitably swallowed and gasped.

“Don’t,” a deep voice warned, “I don’t want to have to pull you out again.”

McCree startled, looking around in search of the source of the voice.

Another splash hit him and when he turned back toward the water, he found what he’d been looking for. Or rather whom. Out of the water peeked a man with dark, piercing eyes, and even darker hair that seemed to become one with the ocean. In the dim light of the cave, McCree couldn’t see him clearly, but what he saw was beautiful. High cheekbones, a regal nose and a thin-lipped mouth that snarled at him in annoyance.

McCree had always had a bad taste in men. But what could he do? He could hardly see more than the man’s face and he was already entranced by the stranger.

“You saved me?”

The man tilted his head, staring at McCree quietly. Clearly he was not going to repeat himself. Although McCree wouldn’t have minded hearing more of that smooth, dark voice.

“Thank you.”

The other huffed as though it had been nothing.

“The name’s McCree by the way,” McCree tried to be polite. “Jesse McCree.”

The stranger nodded slowly, eyes never leaving McCree’s face. “Hanzo,” he reluctantly offered, swimming a little closer.

Maybe McCree could make this work after all. A little conversation while he recovered.

“Don’t you want to get out of the water too, Hanzo?” McCree held out a hand to him, ready to haul him up with whatever remained of his strength. His arm still trembled a little.

Hanzo made no move to grab his hand. “I prefer to stay in the water,” he offered courtly.

“Alriiiiight.” McCree didn’t know what to do with that. What a strange guy. So handsome and at the same time mysterious. McCree hoped Hanzo couldn’t sense what that did to him. He couldn’t resist a good enigma. “How did you know about this cave anyway?” he asked after a moment of quiet wondering.

“I come here sometimes. When the sea is calm.”

McCree looked at him. This explained everything and nothing.

“There are many mussels here,” Hanzo added eventually.

That much made sense to McCree. He had seen local fishermen selling fresh mussels at the market by the beach. They went for a pretty penny. And if they had to climb into caves like this, McCree was no longer surprised as to why.

For a long moment Hanzo kept mustering McCree with interest. His face was half submerged, only revealing his deep eyes. And yet, it felt as though these eyes could see right down to McCree’s very soul. Somehow, he wouldn’t have minded. McCree could have lost himself in the gaze that met his. He blinked.

“What?” McCree finally asked. The stare was flattering. But a small, rational part of McCree protested that it should have been unnerving.  
He had come away with a couple of bruises on his arms and legs, a scratch here and there, but certainly not anything worth staring at.

The stranger came up enough to speak once more. “Nothing.” He paused as though to ponder his next words. “I just don’t usually see humans up close.”

“Humans?” McCree’s eyes widened in surprise, the spell broken. What was that guy talking about? Was he not human? What-?  
Before McCree could ask any of these questions aloud, the other man vanished beneath the ripple of the waves.

“Wait!” McCree yelled at the water. His strange companion couldn’t just leave him like that. “Wait, what are you? Hanzo! Hey!”

McCree waited, heart racing, eyes searching the surface of the water. A long moment passed before he noticed the same, otherworldly blue sparkle again. “Come back. Please?” he asked more quietly. And to his surprise it worked.

“Are you not scared, Jesse McCree?” Hanzo, whatever he was, asked.

“Scared? No.” In all truth, it was actually quite exciting. Even though it might not have been the sanest of all reactions. “That storm scared me,” he admitted, “but not you.”

“Maybe you should be scared.” Hanzo squinted at McCree, trying to appear more dangerous, McCree guessed. Not that it did much. Quite the contrary. McCree found it endearing and his heart jumped for entirely different reasons.

“Why? What are you?”

In lieu of an answer, Hanzo moved and a bright blue fish tail rose out of the water, the scales sparkling even in the low light.

“A mermaid?”

Hanzo snorted.

“My people have been given many names. Mermen, ningyo, moura encantada, sirens-”

McCree raised an eyebrow. “If you’re a siren, aren’t you supposed to drown people instead of saving ’em?”

Hanzo pulled up his lip. “Prejudices.”

“Then, do you sing?”

Hanzo sighed, obviously having expected this particular question and not too amused by it. “I do not sing.”

“And yet, you are enchanting.” McCree was surprised by his own words. But it was true. There was just something about Hanzo that had mesmerized him the moment he’d laid eyes upon the other.

“It cannot be helped.” Hanzo shrugged. Or at least McCree interpreted the motion as a shrug.

McCree’s eyes followed the sinuous movements of Hanzo’s beautifully blue fish tail. Perhaps it really couldn’t be helped. The sight was nigh hypnotizing.

“So Sirens and mermaids and all that… they are all like you?” If that was the case, McCree no longer wondered how all the scary and monstrous stories came to be. Hanzo was beautiful enough that he gladly would have drowned for him. Without him having to do anything other than exist. The thought really should have scared McCree.

“Yes, and no,” Hanzo said sternly. He searched McCree’s face with his peering gaze again. “Your people have evolved in different parts of the world, have they not? Does that make them another species?”

“No.”

“But they are not all like you either, are they?”

“No.”

“Then it is the same as it is with us. We are one, but we are not the same,” Hanzo said pointedly.

The explanation left McCree stumped. “Huh.”

“Huh,” Hanzo mimicked him, then asked apropos of nothing, “How are you feeling? I mean, after the storm. I did not see you sooner, or-”

McCree was surprised by the concern in his otherwise stern voice.  
“No worries. I’m just peachy. A little worn out, but I’ve been worse.” He lifted an arm, clenched his hand, and the tremor had gone. He could probably trust his legs again as well. “Nothing a good night’s rest won’t fix.”

“It is going to be dark soon. Darker than with the storm out there,” Hanzo said, looking above, then behind McCree.

McCree followed his gaze. Now that his eyes had gotten used to the dark, he could clearly see the opening in the rocks that had to lead outside.

“If you follow the draft you should find your way out easily enough,” Hanzo explained, “The way is long but straightforward.”

“How do you know?”

“The fishermen. I hear them when they come. And when they leave.”

McCree nodded. If nightfall was approaching he should probably seek his way out. And get back to his hotel before anyone organized a search party.   
He chuckled at the thought. As if.

McCree got up, but he couldn’t tear his eyes off Hanzo yet. He was leaning against the rocks now, still looking at him curiously. There was something like fins along his forearms that he must have tried to hide earlier and if his eyes didn’t betray him, he could spy what must have been gills down his neck.

Mermaids were real. So were sirens. McCree died to know what else there was out there. But more than that, he wanted to know more about Hanzo, to find out if his instant attraction to him was due to what he was or not. A whole new world could open up if he learned more. The biggest question was if Hanzo would be willing to share though, now that McCree’s curiosity has been piqued.

“Hanzo,” he began, not quite knowing how to ask what he wanted to ask.

“Hm?”

“Will I... see you again?”

“Do you want to?”

“I do.”

Hanzo took his time pondering the answer. But then he smiled—the first emotional response McCree was able to clearly pinpoint on his face. Other than contempt maybe.

“Then I shall find you, Jesse McCree.”


End file.
